Anthousa - a successful failure

[DirkGently]

Anthousa, Setessan Hero is such a weird, terrible commander. She's mono-color, she requires you to cast spells targeting her (pretty difficult to justify in commander outside of something insane like Feather, the Redeemed), and the payoff is so mediocre. Your lands become creatures, but tiny crappy creatures that are probably more of a liability than a help. And how are you supposed to cast these spells targeting her, cast spells to buff up your lands, and still have enough lands left over to mount a decent attack?

Well, since I'm determined to lower myself to the power level of my playgroup, all these difficulties make Anthousa an excellent choice of commander for me. Here's my first stab at the deck. The goal is to win using her ability, so no token generation, or even other cards that turn lands into creatures, or they'll almost certainly overshadow poor terrible Anthousa. Besides that (rather significant) weakness, basically anything is on the table.

Anthousa

DecklistCMCManaPricesChartsDraw 7

Commander (1)

1 Anthousa, Setessan Hero

Activation (23)

1 Prey Upon

1 Tel-Jilad Defiance

1 Frog Tongue

1 Snakeskin Veil

1 Epic Confrontation

1 Primal Might

1 Pounce

1 Whip Silk

1 Aspect of Mongoose

1 Isochron Scepter

1 Rune of Might

1 Irresistible Prey

1 Setessan Training

1 Rancor

1 Spider Umbra

1 Nature's Way

1 Warbriar Blessing

1 Strionic Resonator

1 Vines of Vastwood

1 Savage Punch

1 Karametra's Favor

1 Viridescent Wisps

1 Charge Through

Anthems (19)

1 Earth Surge

1 Beastmaster Ascension

1 Curse of Predation

1 Scale Up

1 Thunderfoot Baloth

1 Throne of the God-Pharaoh

1 Toski, Bearer of Secrets

1 Sylvan Advocate

1 Leyline of Abundance

1 Pathbreaker Ibex

1 Obelisk of Urd

1 Cazur, Ruthless Stalker

1 Echoing Courage

1 Coat of Arms

1 Ohran Frostfang

1 Loyal Guardian

1 Bow of Nylea

1 Dolmen Gate

1 Triumph of the Hordes

Ramp (15)

1 Nissa's Renewal

1 Nissa's Pilgrimage

1 Nature's Lore

1 Exploration

1 Three Visits

1 Kodama's Reach

1 Verdant Mastery

1 Burgeoning

1 Cultivate

1 Far Wanderings

1 Skyclave Relic

1 Pir's Whim

1 Unstable Obelisk

1 Harvest Season

1 Boundless Realms

Other (3)

1 Primal Amulet

1 Season of Growth

1 Life from the Loam

Land (39)

1 Blighted Woodland

1 Myriad Landscape

1 War Room

1 Karn's Bastion

1 Temple of the False God

1 Khalni Ambush

1 Vastwood Fortification

1 Gaea's Cradle

1 Thawing Glaciers

30 Forest

Approximate Total Cost:

Funny enough, one of the most annoying parts of building around her has been that the lands don't change colors. Why aren't they green? Bleh.

Anyway, it's been fairly successful. I played 5 games with it so far, 2 3-player games and 3 4-player games. In all games, though, one person was especially weak and/or incompetent so it was closer to 2 2-player games and 3 3-player games. Anyway, I crushed the 3 player games so I was concerned I'd gone too powerful, but then I lost the 3 4-player games! A successful failure achieved!

[ISBPathfinder]

I have no clue how much you want to optimize this and how much you are intentionally running bad cards or omitting things but here are a few thoughts.

Titania, Protector of Argoth might be ok as I feel like some lands are probably going to die in the course of doing combat with them and making 5/3s out of them dying might be alright. It also does ramp on entering if you have lost any of your lands.

Blizzard Brawl is still better than Pounce even without snow lands right?

Scale the Heights - Its still Explore but it also targets. I think it should fit here fairly well.

It might just be me but I tend to prefer running Exploration in decks with busted fast clocks and tempo draw. I think it can still be ok but I just don't know how well your sustain will be for this deck so outside of opening hands I think its going to be a little weaker. It tends to be better in faster / busted kind of decks in my opinion.

[DirkGently]

@ISBPathfinder I'm open to pretty much anything so long as it doesn't shift the focus off Anthousa as the primary focus of the deck. Of course I do have some motivation to keep it weaker on purpose, but I think it's at a pretty reasonable power level for the group and somewhat close to optimal, so I don't think a little optimization is going to be a problem.

Titania risks taking focus off Anthousa, so I cut her in deckbuilding.

Not sure how I missed Blizzard Brawl, I'm pretty sure I have one. I don't think I have enough snow-covered lands to use them unfortunately (I think I have ~20), but it's strictly better than Prey Upon. I don't like it as much as pounce because it's a sorcery, though. So I might dig it up if I decide to cut something else as prey upon #2 (or if I acquire more snow-covered forests).

Scale the heights is interesting. I'd probably include it if I had one, unfortunately I don't think I do. If I can find one I'll try to find room for it though.

Haven't drawn exploration to see yet, although I have had some land-heavy hands that could have used it. Now I think about it, I probably need to run fetches if I want to use loam, which would be the ideal way to exploit it. Crucible might also be worth including if I want to go heavy on fetches.

[duducrash]

Kamahl, Fist of Krosa and Kamahl, Heart of Krosa love some land beatdowns

[DirkGently]

Kamahl, Fist of Krosa and Kamahl, Heart of Krosa love some land beatdowns

Those would definitely eclipse the commander. so they are no-gos as per the stated intention of the deck.

[ISBPathfinder]

Ahhh yea I missed that Provoke was an instant. But even then.... you kind of want to trigger heroic pre combat on your turn so I don't know if it matters as much.

Hunter's Prowess could be some nice draw and triggers heroic. It is a little expensive and it gets blown out by interaction but I think it does a few things you are looking to do as well.

[DirkGently]

Ahhh yea I missed that Provoke was an instant. But even then.... you kind of want to trigger heroic pre combat on your turn so I don't know if it matters as much.

Hunter's Prowess could be some nice draw and triggers heroic. It is a little expensive and it gets blown out by interaction but I think it does a few things you are looking to do as well.

Took me a sec to realize you meant Pounce not Provoke lol.

It's not that it matters on the turn you swing out (it generally won't) it's more than it's a split card between triggering my commander and being reasonable removal. Having some instant-speed options is too valuable not to include imo, and this lets me keep the density of self-targeting effects high while still including some interaction. That's also true for stuff that gives my commander hexproof or whatever - sometimes they're useful because they do the thing they say, and sometimes they're useful because they say "target creature" to let me alpha strike, but usually not both.

Hunter's prowess triggering heroic is pretty irrelevant most of the time I'd expect. If I'm spending 5 mana to use it I'm probably not going to be able to alpha strike on that turn. It could matter for incidental stuff like Leyline of Abundance but that's probably it, and my commander isn't beefy enough to make it a good card without caring about the targeting I don't think. I could probably use more draw but idk if that's the best option? Maybe something really generic like Harmonize would be good tbh.

[Dragonlover]

Is Bear Umbra too good?

Dragonlover

[DirkGently]

Is Bear Umbra too good?

Dragonlover

Nothing is necessarily off the table as long as it doesn't take focus off anthousa's ability. Bear umbra I decided to cut because I don't think it really works well here? If it could somehow untap my lands before I attack I'd be into it, but usually by the time I attack having more mana isn't that useful, I don't think.

[TheGildedGoose]

Muraganda Petroglyphs is another mediocre anthem, in case you forgot about it.

[DirkGently]

Muraganda Petroglyphs is another mediocre anthem, in case you forgot about it.

If a land with a basic land type becomes a creature, the intrinsic mana ability it has stops Muraganda Petroglyphs from applying to it.
(2021-03-19)

I thought the same but yeah it doesn't work unfortunately.

[TheGildedGoose]

Clearly, the answer is to splash white for Humility.

[RxPhantom]

So the deck wants to be bad and good at the same time, eh? Even so, can we as a community move on from Temple of the False God already? I think you'd be better served by a Forest or Sorrow's Path or stabbing yourself in the toe. And isn't Aspect of Mongoose a bit of a nonbo with your commander?

My main observation and recommendation, respectively, is that Wraths are devastating against this deck, and Heroic Intervention and Wrap in Vigor would be useful here.

[Dunharrow]

Huh I guess you took my suggestion and looks like it worked.

Can I ask why Skyclave Relic is there? I feel like pretty much anything else is better.
Any thoughts on Canopy Cover or Alpha Authority ?

[DirkGently]

Relic is just convenient in that it ramps to 5 or is a big ramp later. Obviously artifact ramp isn't something we want a lot of but a little doesn't hurt.

Since my commander is trash I don't think hexproof is necessary. I like the self-recurring enchantments since they're multi-use but a one-shot doesn't get there imo. Tbh the effect plays awkward too. Do I run it out asap for defence or wait until I can use the heroic trigger?